"I've dealt with high-money guys and low-money guys," Fuson told The Eugene Register-Guard,
talking of Van Poppel that August. "He doesn't get any special
treatment and he doesn't want it. But anybody with any baseball sense
knows this guy has something."

After Southern Oregon,
Fuson moved to scouting for the club. From 1995 to 2001, he served as
team scouting director. It was under his watch that the Athletics
drafted Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, AthleticsFarm.com wrote. He then left to join the Rangers as assistant general manager.

"Grady has a fabulous track record," Rangers GM John Hart told Baseball America in 2002. "When we bought his
services, we bought his evaluation skills, his passion and his
understanding. With that, you buy into a philosophy, too."

Fuson's
earlier departure from Oakland, though, was put in a much different,
and decidedly inaccurate, light in the 2011 movie "Moneyball." In the
film, he's depicted as being fired.

"I walked into the clubhouse the other day and Steve Vucinich said, 'What are you doing here? You got fired!' " Fuson told The San Francisco Chronicle of the A's
equipment manager. "But talking to Billy, he said it's pretty much
fictitious. So I'm not too worried."